My dear friends,
I imagine some of you are taking very tentative steps out in to the wide world now that we have a tiny bit more freedom. Fr Jim’s video message was very helpful.
So, I hope you are feeling merry and bright. But we walk forward slowly, and with respect and caution.
The reading for Morning Prayer today tells the story of Jesus calling the Fishermen, Peter, James and John. Luke 5.1-11. It tells the remarkable story of Jesus wanting to tech the crowds, but how they were pressing in on him, so he got into Simon Peter’s boat, and put it a little way out, and taught from there.
For me, it is the crowds longing to hear his every word that inspires me. How great it was that they were so thirsty for the word of God, even if they didn’t quite know that is what they were longing for.
Fr Rodney, during the live stream service on Sunday mentioned the news item that 25% of UK households have tuned in to some sort of religious programme during the lockdown. Compared to 6% normally.
It may be that folk are looking for some meaning in life while many of the distractions of the world are out of sight! Not necessarily expecting to find simple answers to huge questions, possibly not even knowing what questions they have tucked away in their minds, but possibly looking for whatever it is that will make sense, and bring a feeling of peace to the whirl of confusion that lives in many minds at the moment.
I believe it is brilliant that folk are looking, and seeking. Hopefully the things that we as a chaplaincy put on line may point people somehow to think about faith, or God, or the person of Jesus.
You and I know, that there are no simple answers to life’s big questions, but I would like to share with anyone who is seeking my short reflections on 3 questions that may be lurking in your mind.
Where can I find meaning?
How can I still my confusion?
How can I find peace?
Where can I find meaning? Let me tell you a true simple story. In 1978 I was working for a year in the Accident and Emergency Operating theatres in the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London. I had finished university, and was taking a year out before Theological College.
You can imagine the trauma of many of the cases that came down to theatre – Car crash victims, people who had been stabbed, lots of broken hips, and people who had any sort of dreadful accident. It was often heartbreaking, but also wonderfully inspiring as the surgeons and nurses worked so hard to put people back together. I loved it.
One day when were quiet, the Sister, knowing that I was planning Ordination asked me if I wanted to see a Post Mortem! I jumped at the chance, and went and watched as the surgeon took this body apart, examining each organ in turn. I won’t get all gory, but I need to tell you that for me it was like a religious experience. I watched how each different part of this human being was taken out, and learned how they all fit together, each doing such an incredible task of keeping the body working. The lungs knowing what lungs do, the live bust being a liver and so on. Not to mention the brain, which functioned ceaselessly keeping everything going as it should. Add to that the wonders of imagination, recollection, reason and conscience. The more I thought about it, the more I could never believe that this all happened by accident. There is too much wonder, beauty and awe in life for it to be just chance that it exists in all its complexity.
So if it were not chance, something brought it about. In my little mind it has to have meaning.
Science has the great gift of telling us how stuff happens, and how it works, but it is religion that may help us with the big question of why?
The great monotheistic Faiths all point to similar expressions. There is a God, and somehow he caused us to be in order that we could be loved. For me, that is the ultimate answer. We are here, we exist, in order that we can be loved, and our response to that is to love in return.
So, where do we find meaning? We find meaning in the love that we both Give and Receive. For folk exploring the question of faith, We find meaning when we allow ourselves to accept and believe that We are here so that God can love us. Our Christian faith is summed up in Jesus teaching that we in turn, love God, and love our neighbour.
How can I still my confusion? Have you looked at the papers lately, or tried to keep up with the news from a variety of sources. It is the stuff of nightmares! So many conflicting stories, theories and ideas. Things are changing daily. All of our concrete plans for what we would do in 2020 have disappeared. There is a great deal of uncertainty and worry, and indeed more than a fair share of fake news and conspiracy theory. No wonder we are restless.
But the great Saint Augustine teaches that ‘Out hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.’
There are some things that we can fix, some that we can work out, some guidelines that we can follow, and some news that we can ignore, but still there can be a sense of restlessness because so much is beyond our control.
We don’t look for God to find magic answers, we don’t pray to God to solve all our problems so that we don’t have to, but we can walk with God on our own spiritual journey or Camino, and in so doing we will begin to understand a little of how to feel his presence. Faith is the gift that allows us to see and receive his grace in us, and in others. The Blessing which is love, truth, beauty and freedom. And it is available to us if we let it in. Sometimes with Faith and Prayer, we try too hard. Rather take a note from the psalms. ‘Be still, and know that I am God.
How can I find peace?
We began our thought today with the reading for Morning Prayer, and we conclude with the one for the Eucharist today.
John 14.27-end
27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
True peace is that great gift from God, which is not so much about freedom from conflict as an attitude of the mind and soul. Notice, Jesus says he gives not as the world gives. Sadly the ‘world’ is preoccupied with stuff! Things that we are supposed to need, Status, Wealth, Celebrity, Gossip, Popularity, Drama, Judgement and the Ego. These all conspire together to create feelings of Us and Them, and by their very nature are divisive and generate emotions to do with comparison, and exclusion.
The Peace that Jesus offers is to do with acknowledging his presence, and understanding something of his will, and then endeavouring to live following it. In so doing we will find not only a peace that passes all understanding, but a sense of Joy and Bliss found nowhere else in the world.
Being in the presence of Christ, and accepting that we are in his presence means that we can hide nothing from him, which is the state of true liberation as we learn that we can hide nothing, and pretend nothing and we can truly be ourselves, not the false self that our Ego would have us be.
So, if you are looking, or seeking or searching I hope you find some peace and joy. Small steps, and no preconceived ideas of answers, and all shall be well.
If you would like to talk about any of this, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Bless you on your travels,
Bless you in your thinking,
Bless you as you find your rest in God.